


Midnight Mackerel

by Lucy_Claire



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Middle of Season Two, Midnight Munchies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 07:50:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6186538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy_Claire/pseuds/Lucy_Claire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the middle of the night, close to the last regionals Haru and Makoto will ever swim, and they're the only ones left awake in the house.</p>
<p>During that time they discuss Haru's fear of the future and their future together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midnight Mackerel

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: 'we're the only ones awake'

 

Getting Nagisa to finally sit still and shut up was only achievable by three ways. Yelling at him, him getting sick or him keeling over and falling into a deep sleep, which was what happened after three hours of telling him to go to sleep. Tomorrow was one of their training competitions with Samezuka right before regionals. The last time Makoto and Haru would ever compete at regionals.

Makoto stuck a pillow under Nagisa’s head and dragged him further away from Rei by his feet so Rei wouldn’t accidentally kick him in the head. They were all camped out in Haru’s house, even Gou and Miho were here, sharing Haru’s grandmother’s room while Nagisa and Rei slept on the couch.

Makoto made a few more rounds around the house, checking for open or dripping taps, lights left on or that any of the cats Haru fed had wandered in again, and then headed for Haru’s room.

Haru wasn’t inside.

Just to be sure, Makoto tapped around the bed, just incase Haru was one of the bumps in the comforter. He barely made any sound when he was awake so he was especially silent when he was asleep.

Haru wasn’t anywhere in the room, or in his bathroom, or even outside. Makoto made a few pass-by glances at each part of the house before going back downstairs. He finally spotted something sitting in the kitchen, in the dark, making slurping noises.

Makoto turned on one of the lights and caught Haru eating one of his inventions, ramen noodle soup with chunks of mackerel, which smelled as bad as it sounds. Makoto firmly believed that no meat should ever be boiled, maybe occasionally pork but never fish. If it had to be put in soup then had to have been cooked beforehand or fried beyond recognition.

“Turn off the lights,” Haru mumbled through a full mouth, two noodles still sticking out of his mouth.

Makoto sighed heavily, releasing the nervous tension from his shoulders, letting them drop a little. “Haru, what are you doing?”

“Eating.”

“Why are you eating at midnight?”

“Because I’m hungry?”

Makoto wasn’t in the mood for Haru’s detached form of humor, if that was what he was doing. He could be being literal, it’s not like Haru was known for his wit or expressiveness.

“You know now it’ll be harder to sleep because you have to digest, and that takes around maybe three hours?”

Haru slurped another few noodles and set his bowl down to start picking the chunks of mackerel out with his chopsticks. “We’re swimmers, Makoto, we digest faster.”

“No, we burn calories faster, there’s the difference. Your body gets the calories distributed once you start digesting.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Haru, really.”

Haru looked down at his bowl and uttered a quiet, nondescript “Huh.”

“Did first-year biology completely vanish from your head?”

Haru spat out his bite of boiled mackerel, sticking out his tongue in distaste. “It might as well have.”

Makoto sat on the stool opposite Haru’s. “Is something bothering you?”

Haru got up and dumped the remainder of his soup down the drain, turning on the garbage disposal. Makoto shushed him. “Turn it off!”

“Why? Nagisa sleeps like a rock and the girls are too far away to hear us.”

“And Rei?”

Haru took a bag of potato chips and a bag of vegetable chips out of the cupboard and tossed them onto the table. “I’m convinced he can’t hear properly without his glasses.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I’m not quite sure. Water?” Haru asked, sticking his cup under the tap.

“So I have to wake up and pee in the middle of the night?”

“It’s not like we’re going to sleep much with all these nerves.”

Makoto gave in and opened the vegetable chips. “Is that why you’re snacking? Nerves?”

Haru sat back down, sliding a glass of water over to Makoto. “Maybe.”

“If you’re worried about swimming against Rin, you shouldn’t be. We’ve beaten him loads of times, remember? Besides, it’s just practice for regionals!” Makoto assured him.

Haru looked down at his potato chips, mumbling, “It’s not Rin I’m worried about.”

“Sousuke then? Is he still being a dick to you? Do you want me to talk to him?”

“It’s not Sousuke either,” said Haru. “It’s not a person really, it’s just this feeling.”

“What kind of feeling?”

“I don’t know what word fits it.”

Makoto was starting to worry. “Can you describe it?”

“It’s not fear but it’s not exactly anxiety because I don’t get anxious, but it’s this odd, dark feeling I get right here — ” Haru touched his chest, the spot right over his heart. “— every time I think about what’s going to happen around regionals.”

“Around that time? Not that time exactly?”

Haru nodded.

“Are you worried about not making it to nationals or…?”

“I just said it’s not about the competition.”

“Haru, if I wanted answers that were open to interpretation I’d go eat a suspicious mushroom and chat with the Cheshire Cat.”

Haru choked on his chips, coughing. Makoto reached over to pound him on the back but Haru raised a hand, his shoulder still shaking despite his coughing stopping. The telltale sounds of suppressed laughter became pretty clear when Haru put his hand over his mouth.

“That was random,” said Haru.

“It’s true, you’re being very vague. What’s around regionals?”

“College application season? Miho took me into her office earlier to talk to me about prospective universities and all that. I haven’t given the whole thing a thought, not one.”

“Oh. We haven’t talked about that.” Makoto has yet to bring up that he was planning on going to college in Tokyo. Nothing was final yet so he didn’t feel like stressing Haru or even Nagisa about this yet. “Did she help you pick out something?”

“That’s the problem, I can’t think of anything I want to do other than swim.”

“Apply for a school that has a good swimming team?” Makoto suggested.

“There’s that, but I’m not sure if I want to continue in competitive swimming. You know I don’t have that kind of edge.”

“But you do like to swim your best, which is a bit of a competitive edge whether you know it or not.”

“I guess.”

Haru got quiet again, withdrawing into his own thoughts. Makoto reached over and put his hand over Haru’s, thumbing his cool skin. “It’s okay, we’ll figure something out, we always do.”

“Your optimism baffles me sometimes.”

Makoto laughed lightly. “At least one of us needs to be optimistic, how else would we balance each other out if I wasn’t.”

“If you weren’t so sunshine-y and were maybe on Rei or Gou’s level then I suppose I’d be quite somber, in terms of evening things out I mean,” answered Haru.

“Does my mood affect yours that much?”

Haru smiled slightly, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “You have no idea.”

Makoto huffed, smiling back. “Careful, people will say we’re co-dependant.”

“What if we are? What’s wrong with that?”

“We need to be able to work separately, incase we go in different directions or jobs and later on families — ” Makoto was cut off by Haru squeezing his hand, getting his full attention.

“We don’t have to worry about that. A perk of me being aimless can be that I can follow you wherever you go, no sacrifices, no separations.”

Makoto swallowed. Haru was putting a lot of blind faith in him, devotion too. Haru was always unexpressive, so it was hard to tell what or who he cared about, but Makoto liked to think that after all these years he had learned to read him, and that was as close to a declaration of love as Makoto was going to get this year.

“It’s a deal then, for now,” said Makoto, returning the squeeze on Haru’s hand. “We should sleep now, or at least try to.”

“I really would,” said Haru, getting up. “Follow you to the ends of the Earth I mean.”

Makoto leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I know.”

Haru blinked at him. “Is that all I’m getting?”

Makoto bumped their noses together softly. “You were literally just eating boiled fish. If you want a real kiss then you brush your teeth first.”

“Fine,” Haru said dully, shuffling ahead of him, straight to his bathroom.

They would be fine, they always were.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow on my [**Tumblr**](http://lucyclairedelune.tumblr.com)!
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